Wednesday, November 27, 2013

reading-web-content.org

1 Reading Web Content

1.1 Background

I still find reading Web content in emacs to be way more
efficient than in modern browsers like Chrome with ChromeVox
enabled.
Chrome+ChromeVox is what I use for rich Web Applications;
but when it comes down to reading straight content ranging from
technical documentation to news and current affairs, I find that
I can read a lot more content in a fixed amount of time with
Emacs+Emacspeak than I can with the Chrome+ChromeVox combination.

1.2 Welcome EWW: Emacs Web Wowser

The author of GNUS recently added package
EWW (Emacs Web Wowser) to The Emacs repository —
see his
announcement.
Emacspeak 37.0 included a small addition called shr-url that
leveraged his earlier shr package; I've now added support for
EWW in the Emacspeak source tree. Note that EWW is in the Emacs
source tree, i.e. it will be part of Emacs 24.4, but you can use
it now if you build your own version of Emacs, or obtain an
Emacs that is build from the Emacs source repository.

EWW and SHR are interesting because they both leverage
libxml2 to parse the incoming HTML. This is way faster than
the native elisp browsing used in Emacs/W3. In my personal
opinion, it also opens up more possibilities than Emacs/W3M with
respect to manipulating and filtering content from elisp ---
something that helps create a better reading experience when
using Emacspeak.

1.3 EWW Tips And Tricks

I've mailed out a small patch to package eww that facilitates
implementing such higher-level commands; for now, you can find
that patch in emacspeak/lisp/patches in the Emacspeak svn
repository. With that patch in place, you can do the following to
efficiently filter popular news sites such as the New York Times
(I use http://mobile.nytimes.com) or CNN
(http://cnn.com).

1.1 Investors Note:

With several prominent tweeters expanding coverage of
#emacspeak, NASDOG: ESPK has now been consistently trading over
the social net at levels close to that once attained by DogCom
high-fliers—and as of November 2013 is trading at levels close to
that achieved by once better known stocks in the tech sector.

1.2 What Is It?

Emacspeak is a fully functional audio desktop that provides
complete eyes-free access to all major 32 and 64 bit operating
environments. By seamlessly blending live access to all aspects
of the Internet such as Web-surfing, blogging, social computing
and electronic messaging into the audio desktop, Emacspeak
enables speech access to local and remote information with a
consistent and well-integrated user interface. A rich suite of
task-oriented tools provides efficient speech-enabled access to
the evolving service-oriented social Web cloud.

1.3 Major Enhancements:

Speech-Enables Ipython Notebook interaction via package EIN. 🐍

Speech-enables Chrome/Firefox integration via package JSS. ⱒ

Improved Chrome debugging via package Kite. ⾶

Updated search wizards for rapid Web access. ♄

Updated URL templates for instant Web access. ♅

Improved Emacs 24.3 support. 🌑

And a lot more than wil fit this margin. …

1.4 Establishing Liberty, Equality And Freedom:

Never a toy system, Emacspeak is voluntarily bundled with all
major Linux distributions. Though designed to be modular,
distributors have freely chosen to bundle the fully integrated
system without any undue pressure—a documented success for
the integrated innovation embodied by Emacspeak. As the system
evolves, both upgrades and downgrades continue to be available at
the same zero-cost to all users. The integrity of the Emacspeak
codebase is ensured by the reliable and secure Linux platform
used to develop and distribute the software.

Extensive studies have shown that thanks to these features, users
consider Emacspeak to be absolutely priceless. Thanks to this
wide-spread user demand, the present version remains priceless
as ever—it is being made available at the same zero-cost as
previous releases.

At the same time, Emacspeak continues to innovate in the area of
eyes-free social interaction and carries forward the
well-established Open Source tradition of introducing user
interface features that eventually show up in luser environments.

On this theme, when once challenged by a proponent of a
crash-prone but well-marketed mousetrap with the assertion
"Emacs is a system from the 70's", the creator of Emacspeak
evinced surprise at the unusual candor manifest in the assertion
that it would take popular idiot-proven interfaces until the year
2070 to catch up to where the Emacspeak audio desktop is
today. Industry experts welcomed this refreshing breath of
Courage Certainty and Clarity (CCC) at a time when users are
reeling from the Fear Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) unleashed by
complex software systems backed by even more convoluted press
releases.

1.5 Independent Test Results:

Independent test results have proven that unlike some modern (and
not so modern) software, Emacspeak can be safely uninstalled without
adversely affecting the continued performance of the computer. These
same tests also revealed that once uninstalled, the user stopped
functioning altogether. Speaking with Aster Labrador, the creator of
Emacspeak once pointed out that these results re-emphasize the
user-centric design of Emacspeak; "It is the user – and not the
computer – that stops functioning when Emacspeak is uninstalled!".

1.5.1 Note from Aster,Bubbles and Tilden:

UnDoctored Videos Inc. is looking for volunteers to star in a
video demonstrating such complete user failure.

1.7 History:

Emacspeak 39.0 continues the Emacspeak tradition of increasing
the breadth of user tasks that are covered without introducing
unnecessary bloatware. Emacspeak 38.0 is the latest in a series
of award-winning releases from Emacspeak Inc. Emacspeak 37.0
continues the tradition of delivering robust software as
reflected by its code-name. Emacspeak 36.0 enhances the audio
desktop with many new tools including full EPub support — hence
the name EPubDog. Emacspeak 35.0 is all about teaching a new dog
old tricks — and is aptly code-named HeadDog in honor of our
new Press/Analyst contact. emacspeak-34.0 (AKA Bubbles)
established a new beach-head with respect to rapid task
completion in an eyes-free environment. Emacspeak-33.0 AKA
StarDog brings unparalleled cloud access to the audio
desktop. Emacspeak 32.0 AKA LuckyDog continues to innovate via
open technologies for better access. Emacspeak 31.0 AKA TweetDog
— adds tweeting to the Emacspeak desktop. Emacspeak 30.0 AKA
SocialDog brings the Social Web to the audio desktop—you cant but
be social if you speak! Emacspeak 29.0—AKAAbleDog—is a testament
to the resilliance and innovation embodied by Open Source
software—it would not exist without the thriving Emacs community
that continues to ensure that Emacs remains one of the premier
user environments despite perhaps also being one of the
oldest. Emacspeak 28.0—AKA PuppyDog—exemplifies the rapid pace of
development evinced by Open Source software. Emacspeak 27.0—AKA
FastDog—is the latest in a sequence of upgrades that make
previous releases obsolete and downgrades unnecessary. Emacspeak
26—AKA LeadDog—continues the tradition of introducing innovative
access solutions that are unfettered by the constraints inherent
in traditional adaptive technologies. Emacspeak 25 —AKA ActiveDog
—re-activates open, unfettered access to online
information. Emacspeak-Alive —AKA LiveDog —enlivens open,
unfettered information access with a series of live updates that
once again demonstrate the power and agility of open source
software development. Emacspeak 23.0 – AKA Retriever—went the
extra mile in fetching full access. Emacspeak 22.0 —AKA GuideDog
—helps users navigate the Web more effectively than ever
before. Emacspeak 21.0 —AKA PlayDog —continued the Emacspeak
tradition of relying on enhanced productivity to liberate
users. Emacspeak-20.0 —AKA LeapDog —continues the long
established GNU/Emacs tradition of integrated innovation to
create a pleasurable computing environment for eyes-free
interaction. emacspeak-19.0 – AKA WorkDog – is designed to
enhance user productivity at work and leisure. Emacspeak-18.0
– code named GoodDog – continued the Emacspeak tradition of
enhancing user productivity and thereby reducing total cost of
ownership. Emacspeak-17.0 – code named HappyDog – enhances user
productivity by exploiting today's evolving WWW
standards. Emacspeak-16.0 – code named CleverDog – the follow-up
to SmartDog – continued the tradition of working better, faster,
smarter. Emacspeak-15.0 – code named SmartDog – followed up on
TopDog as the next in a continuing a series of award-winning
audio desktop releases from Emacspeak Inc. Emacspeak-14.0 – code
named TopDog – was the first release of this
millennium. Emacspeak-13.0 – codenamed YellowLab – was the
closing release of the 20th. century. Emacspeak-12.0 – code named
GoldenDog – began leveraging the evolving semantic WWW to provide
task-oriented speech access to Webformation. Emacspeak-11.0
– code named Aster – went the final step in making Linux a
zero-cost Internet access solution for blind and visually
impaired users. Emacspeak-10.0 – (AKA Emacspeak-2000) code named
WonderDog – continued the tradition of award-winning software
releases designed to make eyes-free computing a productive and
pleasurable experience. Emacspeak-9.0 – (AKA Emacspeak 99) code
named BlackLab – continued to innovate in the areas of speech
interaction and interactive accessibility. Emacspeak-8.0 – (AKA
Emacspeak-98++) code named BlackDog – was a major upgrade to the
speech output extension to Emacs.

Emacspeak-95 (code named Illinois) was released as OpenSource on
the Internet in May 1995 as the first complete speech interface
to UNIX workstations. The subsequent release, Emacspeak-96 (code
named Egypt) made available in May 1996 provided significant
enhancements to the interface. Emacspeak-97 (Tennessee) went
further in providing a true audio desktop. Emacspeak-98
integrated Internetworking into all aspects of the audio desktop
to provide the first fully interactive speech-enabled WebTop.

About Emacspeak:

Originally based at Cornell (NY)
http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/raman – home to Auditory User
Interfaces (AUI) on the WWW – Emacspeak is now maintained on
GoogleCode --http://code.google.com/p/emacspeak —and
Sourceforge —http://emacspeak.sf.net. The system is mirrored
world-wide by an international network of software archives and
bundled voluntarily with all major Linux distributions. On
Monday, April 12, 1999, Emacspeak became part of the
Smithsonian's Permanent Research Collection on Information
Technology at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American
History.

The Emacspeak mailing list is archived at Vassar – the home of the
Emacspeak mailing list – thanks to Greg Priest-Dorman, and provides a
valuable knowledge base for new users.

1.8 Press/Analyst Contact: Tilden Labrador

Going forward, Tilden acknowledges his exclusive monopoly on
setting the direction of the Emacspeak Audio Desktop, and
promises to exercise this freedom to innovate and her resulting
power responsibly (as before) in the interest of all dogs.